Hacker

I know that airplane (44-72934) used to be over in the UK, but apparently it's in Mexico now. Not sure who the pilot is on the airshow circuit Check it: https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survi.../44-72934.shtml https://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/p51-4472934.html On a related note, there used to be a P-51B painted up as the original Shangri-La. It was owned by Pete Regina and flown by Skip Holm back when I first saw it in '82. Since then, it's been repainted orange, renamed "The Believer" and flown by Joe Kasparoff. After that, it was sold to a fighter collection over in the UK and painted as "Miss Elizabeth" (or Princess Elizabeth, can't remember which).

Red Flags are held something like 7 times per year. Over the last 5 years I've been in the fighter business, the frequency of Red Flag participations has changed somewhat. This is mostly due to real-world taskings like ONE and OIF. All things being equal, it's a reasonable expectation to go at least once during a 3-year operational tour. My previous squadron *would* have done two Red Flags and one Maple Flag during my 3 years there, but the MF and one RF were CANX so we could play in ONE, OEF, and OIF. On the other hand, there are guys from Vipers and Hogs that I fly with at Moody who have been through two ops tours (one normal and one Korea) and never been to Red Flag. So, as usual, your mileage may vary. Regarding the funding of participating in a Red Flag or a WIC support...if you're not _at a minimum_ drinking your daily per diem, you're probably doing something wrong. If not that, then spending it at Blackjack or Craps is a suitable substitute. Just remember, if you hit it big at Craps you're obligated to take the rest of the boys to the Dancing Bear establishment of your choice and supply the $ bills for the evening! I recommend Crazy Horse II, but Spearmint Rhino also isn't bad.

Thanks...that's something that I don't see a whole lot of among USAF pilots -- a real interest in the history. I was amazed that guys in my squadron (and even in the rest of the 4FW) just didn't have an appreciation for the importance of the units they were assigned to and the amazing historical accomplishments. As an example, when I was first sketching out the "Shangri-La II" artwork on the nose of the airplane, you wouldn't believe how many people asked me, "hey, how come you're putting the 334th emblem [the boxing eagle] up there?" None of them realized that the emblem was on a very historically significant and well-known 336th FS airplane, and only later on did the boxing eagle become the squadron emblem of the 334th. Here's another little geeky tidbit for ya -- that P-51D that you have pictured (well, not that *exact* one...) is Gentile's Mustang that he used during his stateside war bond promotional tour. The *real* Shangri-La crashed at Debden on her last flight and was bulldozed into a field!

I'm gonna vote Creech, McPeak, and Fogleman. Creech was TAC/CC and the other two CSAFs. From the looks of the link, it's from some photos I have posted over at the Warbirds Information Exchange website, where I'm also a frequent contributor (because I'm not only a big geek about current military aviation, but a warbird buff too!)

What, no comments on the cool combat 'stache or the really bad grown-out-shaved-cranium chia look?

I'm sure all the Juvats will love to see what the Pantons are up to, holding ****-n-balls on video travelling 'round the world.

I'll throw my view as an IFF IP into the mix here. I brief my students on every sortie that when there's a no-kidding EP, training is over but *keep flying the airplane* and run applicable checklists. As others have said, I'll let students handle the EP on their own up to my tolerance for safety. I think being forced to handle an EP on your own is a fantastic learning experience, and by the time students get to me they should be able to perform a T-38 EP with few problems. My most recent EP I did not let a student handle was a weird EED indication which looked like an oil pump shaft shear (it later turned out to not be that), after which we shut the motor down and shot a single engine ILS into 400-1 conditions. I let the student trouble shoot the problem while I ran checklists for him, he performed all the coordination with his flight lead, the SOF, and approach. I only took over when we were approaching ILS final. He was doing a fine job, but I couldn't afford for us to mess up a no-crap SE ILS down close to mins and low on gas (it happened on RTB). It wasn't a big deal for me, but it could have been for my student, and I could not answer the mail as an IP if anything had happened.

What's your reference? What UCMJ article addresses this subject?

As a fighter guy, I've never used a Jepp chart. A shame, since when I go for that ATP I'm gonna have to learn! Anyway, I don't think it's of any utility to subscribe to Jepp as an individual military pilot. I'm guessing that the heavy dudes who use Jepps with approval have a squadron subscription and don't fork out the dough from their own Per Diem Cowboy fund. [ 02. December 2004, 19:07: Message edited by: Hacker ]

As many others have pointed out, you don't *have* to study anything prior to UPT in order to succeed. Also, once you start UPT, you have gotten on an ass-pain train that is not going to stop for about 2 years, so it's in your best interests to just enjoy your time with no responsibilities. That being said, when I went to UPT I'd had a copy of the Tweet -1 that I'd been studying for months. A student I met pointed out some of the things for me to focus my reading on (notes, cautions, warnings, etc) and that gave me a *serious* advantage once we hit the flightline. So, it's your choice -- listen to those of us who speak from experience when we say "just relax -- you'll be glad you did," or grab that -1 and start the pain early.

Herk drivers must drive like grannies! It's about 4 hours and change to Atlanta. I'll echo the thoughts on Valdosta. Nice, small southern college town with a good business district. Compared to Columbus (only other UPT base I've been stationed at), this place is the clear winner in all categories.

I belive that everyone has had to suffer through "Wingman Day" recently. Probably not as painful as "Combat Nighthawk" or any number of those programs, but still pretty laughable.

I definitely see that the downswept top surface of the ramps would provide some aerodynamic forces that the flight control computer would have to deal with. Based on my purely non-scientific experience looking out the window at the ramps while actuating the stick in flight, I don't see that there's any relation to the commands generated by the flight control computer and the commands generated by the air inlet controller. Interesting information, though. Perhaps even true!

That's a new one on me. While I don't doubt that the large under-side surface area of the ramps provide some kind of newtonian lift via ram-air, I have never heard that they had any relation to the flight control system. Do you have a reference for that? My -1 doesn't mention anything about it.

Dang, and I was just getting all amped up to resign my USAF commission and join CAP so I could get close to the real action...

The F-15A, at least, had capability to select and drop dumb iron, as well as a depressable air-to-ground pipper and even an air-ground mode of the radar to use for ranging. Many early operational Eagle squadrons even had RAP counters for bomb dropping.

I don't believe that the crash is actually on the video. The tape that I'm aware of has them doing the wingovers by the cliff on a different day prior (I don't know how long before...) to the flight on which they crashed and were killed.

Beware of what you sign up for with the USMC. A friend of mine in college signed one of these "guaranteed pilot" contracts with the Marines. While he was off at a summer program called "Bulldog" (which I assume is a field training type of thing) he broke his ankle...and as a result lost his pilot slot. Apparently in the fine print of the contract there was something saying that if you are injured they don't have to make you a pilot. So...he was headed to be a rifleman instead of a jet jock!

The Eagle Rage trailer actually pre-dates the "American Fighter Pilot" series by a year or so, back when they wanted it to be a full-on 2-hour movie. Of course, CBS picked up the project and they intended to make it into "reality TV"...and you know the rest of the story. The producers of the series all ready have DVDs in the works, and have been saying for a year now that they would be hitting retail. Supposedly it is the entire series. The latest I heard was that it would be available on DVD by Christmas.

I've seen the mockup for this aircraft (in the pits at the Reno Air Races this year) and spoken at length with one of their sales guys. The designer, and the president of ATG, is a former T-38 UPT instructor, so there at least seems to be some sort of rational basis of experience at ATG. Personally, I wasn't impressed with what I saw, and I don't see that it offers anything that the T-38C does not outside of some engine commonality with commercial bizjets. There are, of course, advanced aerodynamics and construction methods, but I don't really see how that can enhance student training. It seems like a smaller T-38 to me, and that's about it. I would be interested to see how the airplane actually flies before I comment on how it would be able to fill the IFF/LIFT role. Based on how the sales guy was talking, he didn't seem to have much experience with teaching fighter pilot basics and couldn't answer many of my questions regarding the airplane's advanced handling qualities. He also didn't seem to have any concept of what was important in teaching budding fighter pilots, going on at length about the airplane's amazing digital scoring system for bomb dropping and weapon shots (it essentially seemed the same capability all ready fielded in the T-38C).

WSOs with landing currency.

Are you Hef?? I've been reading your sh*t over at the edodo for years...great stuff.

I generally use the "2-ranks rule" with respect to callsign use. Someone who is two ranks higher than me, I will address by their rank or "Sir".

Yep, fully true story that happened circa 97 or 98. I asked the Commandant (Col. Sergeant?) who said "no" and later an IP who gave me the story that the scarves were only for IPs. I thought fighter pilots were a bunch of pr*cks then, anyway, so it didn't surprise me. Now, being on the other side, if someone asked me for a scarf, I'd give it to them just to make it go away! [ 17. October 2004, 09:48: Message edited by: Hacker ]

The black-and-yellow checkerboard scarves used to be the excluive territory of the USAF Weapons School. When I was a maintenance officer out at Nellis (and before I thought scarves were kind of retarded!), I tried to get one but they wouldn't part with one...saying that they were only for WIC IPs! That being said, most of the scarves I've seen are made by a place called Rama World (https://www.ramaworld.com/) out in California. I'm sure you might be able to get something from them. Toro, I think the 37th scarves used to be blue-and-yellow.